I'm looking forward to the expansion as well, and am very pleased to see that FC won't be increasing the level cap, although the new skills that can be opened up are a form of character progression post-80.

I'm also hoping that FC don't introduce any new classes - they need to ensure that the current classes are balanced first IMO.

As for the classes that Khitani characters will be able to take, my guess would be that they will, like the other 3 races, be unable to take a class from one archetype, and my guess for that would be the priest archetype.

Although the Khitani are noted mages, I'm not sure that having necromancers would fit with Khitai.  Stygia is a nation obsessed with death, possibly justifying keeping necromancers Stygian-only.

As regards the soldier and rogue archetypes, I'd guess that they will allow players free access to all of the classes under them for Khitani characters.

Although the tiger mounts seem like  a step towards high fantasy, I'm hoping that the magical side of things is kept low-key to maintain some notion of low-fantasy.

Sweet, expansion pack is looking real good, loved the video.

Can't wait!

Age of Conan got much more improvements since launch and runs nicely, smoother on my 4 years old computer. And i think expansion pack will bring more people into game..

After they lay off everyone after this comes out do not expect much new content and it will probably be a year plus before the bugs are fixed just like release.

Also, this game will be competing with a myriad of new MMOs so the winback failure doomed them there...GW2, KOTOR MMO, AION, new Final fantasy,etc. Just look how much damage every MMO launch has done to AoC so far. The game has only half full servers at best today.

So it seems like it has already failed.

Originally posted by finaticd

After they lay off everyone after this comes out do not expect much new content and it will probably be a year plus before the bugs are fixed just like release.

Also, this game will be competing with a myriad of new MMOs so the winback failure doomed them there...GW2, KOTOR MMO, AION, new Final fantasy,etc. Just look how much damage every MMO launch has done to AoC so far. The game has only half full servers at best today.

So it seems like it has already failed.

lol - you still trashing the game and the company in the same setting? Dont mind that you dont like Funcom, but there is no denying that the game, at its current state, is doing well.

Also, Funcom has throughout this period managed to

1) Fix AoC (sieges are still not up to par though)

2) Run a full dev team for a new mmo

3) Run a team to develop an expansion

4) Run a couple of smaller teams for casual mmos

All this without reducing their 38Mill USD cash reserve. The company is faaaaaar from dead. 

Edit: Forgot that they are still making money on Anarchy Online as well! (just a tad though)

Originally posted by veritas_X

Sounds good, I'll be re-subbing to check it out.

Can't wait to see how the 'AOC is failing' crowd reacts to a new expansion, lol.

I do not listen to those AoC is failing morons.  If they would actually log onto a server they would see that it is not.  I play on the Wiccana server and it does not matter when I log on, I always see alot of people.  I even play very late at night alot of the time and its still good.

Originally posted by Aceundor

Originally posted by finaticd

After they lay off everyone after this comes out do not expect much new content and it will probably be a year plus before the bugs are fixed just like release.

Also, this game will be competing with a myriad of new MMOs so the winback failure doomed them there...GW2, KOTOR MMO, AION, new Final fantasy,etc. Just look how much damage every MMO launch has done to AoC so far. The game has only half full servers at best today.

So it seems like it has already failed.

 

lol - you still trashing the game and the company in the same setting? Dont mind that you dont like Funcom, but there is no denying that the game, at its current state, is doing well.

Also, Funcom has throughout this period managed to

1) Fix AoC (sieges are still not up to par though)

2) Run a full dev team for a new mmo

3) Run a team to develop an expansion

4) Run a couple of smaller teams for casual mmos

All this without reducing their 38Mill USD cash reserve. The company is faaaaaar from dead. 

Edit: Forgot that they are still making money on Anarchy Online as well! (just a tad though)

This is an lol post my man,

1) Not only are sieges broke..They have never worked correctly....and never will work correctly; If it could have been fixed it would have been fixed by now. Can you put a number on the amount of players that left AoC because of this broken feature alone.?? I'l guess hundreds of thousands during the course of 1 year.

2)&3)&4) Im glad you think this is a good thing (since their staff is only about 188 people). Because if i was Naive enough to pay for this game --Im not sure I would have a sense of humour about these 3 points. Because ultimately the AoC users are paying them to do this, but the with fixes that AoC needs, and with the addition of content has been taken away (because of a lack of focus on AoC) is to the point that AoC is virtually at a"Stand Still. FC is probably hoping everyone will forget the fact (by announcing the Xpac) that you probably won't be seeing any major patches til Xmas." But if you are okay with that? Power to you. .way to get walked on.

Which brings us to the lol statement of 38mil. Exactly what quarter are you getting that from. Last quarter? Because i know that their next Q report is right around the corner...and im betting it will be "JUICY." /rubs hands together.

I'll also guess...

They are faaaar from being ok.

Originally posted by Blackwell99

Which brings us to the lol statement of 38mil. Exactly what quarter are you getting that from. Last quarter? Because i know that their next Q report is right around the corner...and im betting it will be "JUICY." /rubs hands together.

I'll also guess...

They are faaaar from being ok.

Actually the last quarterly report (next one is due out in a few weeks I think) clearly stated they had around 40M USD cash reserves as of the end of march this year (and that hasn't fallen since the previous quarter much at all). You don't even need to dig into the financial speak it is right there on the press release here so on a financial basis they seem to be on very sound footing.

So its far from a 'lol' statement, I would expect from looking at their last few reports it is unlikely to have fallen that much in the last quarter either. Next quarterly report is soon, so we will see then, but either way with their income and the type of expenditure you see from the previous reports, they could last a few years even if Age of Conan stopped contributing anything at all :p  That is not a company in any kind of financial trouble.

Originally posted by Blackwell99

Originally posted by Aceundor

Originally posted by finaticd

After they lay off everyone after this comes out do not expect much new content and it will probably be a year plus before the bugs are fixed just like release.

Also, this game will be competing with a myriad of new MMOs so the winback failure doomed them there...GW2, KOTOR MMO, AION, new Final fantasy,etc. Just look how much damage every MMO launch has done to AoC so far. The game has only half full servers at best today.

So it seems like it has already failed.

 

lol - you still trashing the game and the company in the same setting? Dont mind that you dont like Funcom, but there is no denying that the game, at its current state, is doing well.

Also, Funcom has throughout this period managed to

1) Fix AoC (sieges are still not up to par though)

2) Run a full dev team for a new mmo

3) Run a team to develop an expansion

4) Run a couple of smaller teams for casual mmos

All this without reducing their 38Mill USD cash reserve. The company is faaaaaar from dead. 

Edit: Forgot that they are still making money on Anarchy Online as well! (just a tad though)

 

This is an lol post my man,

1) Not only are sieges broke..They have never worked correctly....and never will work correctly; If it could have been fixed it would have been fixed by now. Can you put a number on the amount of players that left AoC because of this broken feature alone.?? I'l guess hundreds of thousands during the course of 1 year.

2)&3)&4) Im glad you think this is a good thing (since their staff is only about 188 people). Because if i was Naive enough to pay for this game --Im not sure I would have a sense of humour about these 3 points. Because ultimately the AoC users are paying them to do this, but the with fixes that AoC needs, and with the addition of content has been taken away (because of a lack of focus on AoC) is to the point that AoC is virtually at a"Stand Still. FC is probably hoping everyone will forget the fact (by announcing the Xpac) that you probably won't be seeing any major patches til Xmas." But if you are okay with that? Power to you. .way to get walked on.

Which brings us to the lol statement of 38mil. Exactly what quarter are you getting that from. Last quarter? Because i know that their next Q report is right around the corner...and im betting it will be "JUICY." /rubs hands together.

I'll also guess...

They are faaaar from being ok.

 

 

Sorry, but can´t take you seriously any longer after the famous thread "Age of Norwegian Business Practices", where you practically blamed a whole country for AoCs "failures".. 

Originally posted by Thornrage

Info found at

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=203381

 

 GENERAL INFO
-No level cap increase
-No new classes
-New abilities, spells and combos
-Alternate Advancement Point system for new feat trees

NEW CONTINENT
-A new continent named Khitai based on Chinese and Korean culture
-A new race of Chinese and Korean culture named Khitan
-Khitai will have a larger area to explore
-Playfields will be linked in the region thus eliminating the need for travel NPCs and gated doors
-Khitai is split into five large gameplay regions and players will be able to travel there from one or more of the major hubs in the game

KHITAI REGIONS
-Gateway to Khitai (Level 20-40)
-The Northern Grasslands
-Chosain Province
-Kara Korum
-Paikang

KHITAN CLASSES
-Unknown at this time

NEW MOUNTS
-Tiger mount
-Wolf mount
-New mounts cannot be bought from a vendor
-New mounts can be tamed as a cub and trained to fight
-Player must craft a saddle before being able to ride new mount

NEW FACTIONS
-Ranks and titles which are faction based in Khitai
-Ranks unlock special rewards, titles and additional tiers of quests
-Players will have to choose which faction they ally themselves to
-Separate quest lines for each faction
-Betrayal quests
-Four separate tiers of armor for each different faction

NEW DUNGEONS
-Pillars of Heaven

A lot of interesting things, well except those tigers. Not that it's a big deal, but I couldn't see that one coming. I'm just gonna say that I really hope for Funcom's sake that EVERYTHING mentioned is going to be in the game when you buy it.

I'd love to see a lot of things currently screwed up in the game fixed up before this is released, though. Just to give a few examples: crafting, interface, sieges (don't know if that is ever gonna happen now). I'm sure there's few people who are still willing to check out the expansion, as long as it's not too expensive.

The Khitai worshiped Yag-Kosha and were powerful magic users.

I'm liking everything but the lack of new classes. Maybe add one class to each tree for the new race. Let's say Samurai tank, Ninja MDPS, Monk Healer and Wizards.

 Edit: That tower Avery was talking about is probably the tower of the elephant, where Conan went in his younger years to get a priceless jewel from an evil wizard.

Originally posted by LordBonezy

Aside from trying to save AOC I dont see what the point of dumping an expansion is. To be sure they haven't even fixed the original game sufficient to show a stable increase in subscriptions. The reason for that is that progress is very slow, and there are quite a few gaping holes in the original. Why should players continue to support this company, their developments, when they seem more interested in selling the next thing before actually delivering the existing product? 

I'm all for an expansion to AOC but I want that expansion after Funcom delivers what they advertised for AOC. I really don't want anybody to buy the expansion and support the ripping off of the veterns or players who are already playing a game which evidently is not Funcom's top priority.

Announcing the launching of an expansion is a kick in the balls to everybody who has supported and given time to AOC and Funcom.

I've been playing since launch and I don't see it as a kick in the balls. Neither do the other vets who enjoy the game and are also looking forward to the expansion. AoC is a solid product now, they should be releasing an expansion.

Originally posted by skeaser

The Khitai worshiped Yag-Kosha and were powerful magic users.

I'm liking everything but the lack of new classes. Maybe add one class to each tree for the new race. Let's say Samurai tank, Ninja MDPS, Monk Healer and Wizards.

 Edit: That tower Avery was talking about is probably the tower of the elephant, where Conan went in his younger years to get a priceless jewel from an evil wizard.

Yea I have the Mongoose Khitai source book too there is some interesting stuff in it, amongst other things the premise for some really neat sounding magic.

I am wondering about the non weapon kinda martial art looking part in the vid.

I know there is currently no release date but are we talking weeks, a few months, 6 months+? spring 2010?

There is as said no date, but between us, I belive somewhere Q2-Q4 2010 all depending on how far they actually are with the content, and what level of quality and depth they intend to release for the masses. For their sake, I hope its high quality, as its in high demand these days.

Then were talking  a whole year easy, but somehow, I can`t seem to shake that they will try to get it done sooner. Time will tell.

 Given they already have playable stuff probably sooner. Also, they don't have time to mingle around and do nothing. They have to push this before new comming games are fixed. The only thing that worries me is that they still don't have songs for the game.

Originally posted by Larry2298

I don't see the expansion will do any good for AOC, on contrarily, I think it might be worsen the image. Becuase an expansion pack without level remove is simply NOTHING for mmorpg. It's not The Sims 3 to add University pack, Beach pack. It's just another larger instance.

Only remove the level cap means the game company decided to go further on. Turbine released MOM to remove the level cap and brought the gameplay into another map, but Funcom follows the steps of The Sims 3. And who will want to buy The Sims 3? Maxis just repeate how they ripped money off those people from The Sims 2.

Right after the Sims 3 just released, you can hear the next expansion World Adventures is on the way to rip your pocket.

 

Adding more content is not a bad thing because it's also what a lot of players want too. Removing level caps is a pretty big change for the game. Levels on the other hand help define your character progression and power for the game mechanics for balance. Increasing the cap really only helps add to the progression and content (i.e.: more hours of game play). None of which are confirmed other than more physical content to explore and complete.

Updates will still go on now until whenever. There are still other issues to address in the mean time and we'll still have a good part of that dedicated to updating the game.

Originally posted by FC-Famine .

There are still other issues to address in the mean time and we'll still have a good part of that dedicated to updating the game.

I hope you are speaking about UI and lack of character customization

Originally posted by FC-Famine

Originally posted by Larry2298

I don't see the expansion will do any good for AOC, on contrarily, I think it might be worsen the image. Becuase an expansion pack without level remove is simply NOTHING for mmorpg. It's not The Sims 3 to add University pack, Beach pack. It's just another larger instance.

Only remove the level cap means the game company decided to go further on. Turbine released MOM to remove the level cap and brought the gameplay into another map, but Funcom follows the steps of The Sims 3. And who will want to buy The Sims 3? Maxis just repeate how they ripped money off those people from The Sims 2.

Right after the Sims 3 just released, you can hear the next expansion World Adventures is on the way to rip your pocket.

 

 

Adding more content is not a bad thing because it's also what a lot of players want too. Removing level caps is a pretty big change for the game. Levels on the other hand help define your character progression and power for the game mechanics for balance. Increasing the cap really only helps add to the progression and content (i.e.: more hours of game play). None of which are confirmed other than more physical content to explore and complete.

Updates will still go on now until whenever. There are still other issues to address in the mean time and we'll still have a good part of that dedicated to updating the game.

Removing or expanding level caps is a terrible idea. Don't do it unless you have fixed grouping and quadrupled your subscription numbers such that every server feels busy all the time. Finding folks to group with is/was hard enough in AOC stock as it was, with the below average grouping tools, and the lame xp per hour you get while grouping nobody was up for doing it. Why make it even harder to find players of similar level range to group with which is exactly what will happen if they expand the level range. Choosing to keep it a 1-80 game is a decision Funcom should be at least open about and get the community support on.

However, since players want features and immersion and AOC is still pretty shallow in that department, focusing on the new product and other products has really caused the pace of improving AOC to suffer. The depth of the current build being as shallow as it is, reflects strongly on the slipping buzz for the game, and the failure of the free trials. When you are ready to admit or at least discuss openly that Famine, come talk.

An Asian expansion of AOC is clearly not going to work in the asian market when Diablo III is on that same market or maybe you don't realize that everybody plays D2 in South Korea, and for good reason. It isn't missing a bunch of features and promised hyped components.

Originally posted by Deewe

Originally posted by FC-Famine .

There are still other issues to address in the mean time and we'll still have a good part of that dedicated to updating the game.

 

I hope you are speaking about UI and lack of character customization

Hmm the UI doesnt get any more customizable.  If you know how to do it, you can make any UI you want.

Lack of character customization?  You serious?  You must have missed the "advanced customization" part of character creation.

They need to hurry up with this guild renown system, the expansion is what, really just new scenery,quests, and equipment?  All the major updates are going to be for the whole game not expansion only right?